Discover the Continent of Australia!

Are you studying continents and oceans in your elementary classroom? Looking for a quick and easy way to present Geography content to your students in a manner that will inform, excite, and engage them? Teach Starter has the answer… the humble mini-book!

Let’s face it… little learners LOVE little books! We’ve capitalized on this fact by creating an informative and age-appropriate mini-book to deepen your students’ knowledge of the physical and human geography of the continent of Australia. By engaging with this resource, students will read and learn about the following:

• Key facts
• Countries 
• Landforms
• Waterways
• People

Wanting to make sure your students have understood what they have read? We hear you! The last page of the mini-book features a “Show Me What You Know!” section. Students must answer a number of true and false questions based on the content of the book, providing teachers with a quick and easy method of assessing who has and who hasn’t grasped the overarching concepts.

How to Create This Australia Mini-Book

This resource contains seven pages. Each Letter portrait page contains two duplicate versions of the same mini-book page. For example, page 1 of the resource download contains two duplicate versions of the title page. This means that, once you download this resource, you will only need to print enough copies for half the number of students in your class.

To assemble the mini-book, follow these simple steps.

1. Print out the resource. Create copies as required.
2. Cut each page along the dotted line.
3. Compile the pages in order. There will be seven pages in total.
4. Staple the pages along the left-side margin to create a booklet. 
5. Distribute to the students.

Tips for Scaffolding and Extension 

If you have a mixture of above- and below-level learners (and we’re sure that you do!), check out these suggestions for keeping all of your students on track with this resource:

🆘 Support Struggling Students

Students with lower reading levels may benefit from having the mini-book read to them aloud in a small-group setting. These students may also benefit from having key vocabulary words explicitly explained during reading. They may also benefit from highlighting key information that may help them answer the “Show Me What You Know” section at the end. 

➕ Challenge High Fliers

Allow students who need more of a challenge to read and complete the mini-book independently. As an additional activity, encourage more-confident students to create their own mini-book page on a topic not covered in the book. For example, students could create a page about flora and fauna, climate, or even about the most popular human-made landmarks on the continent.

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the easy-print PDF or the editable Google Slides version of this resource.

This resource was created by Kaitlyn Blevins, a teacher in Georgia and a Teach Starter collaborator.